News of: Thursday, 7th of January, 2010

Front Page

Several hundred locals in a colourful boat procession were chanting slogans in support of saving the Buriganga as Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan pulled the lever of an old crane that scooped a mass of polythene and sludge from the river at Badamtoli yesterday.

The main opposition BNP seems to have failed to play its due role in parliament during the first year of the Awami League-led grand alliance rule because of strategic weakness and inconsiderate boycott of the House.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's speech to the nation was basically narration of her government's successes, criticism of previous governments and she avoided talking about specific issues and future plans, civil society members said yesterday.

Bangladesh Bank is launching a road show from Teknaf to Tentulia at the end of March to promote financing of small and medium enterprises, soft loans for farmers, use of banking channels for remittance and raise awareness about money laundering.

The high-powered committee on monthly pay order (MPO) listing has suggested inclusion of non-government educational institutions on the government's payroll based on their student number and pass rate in public examinations.

The High Court yesterday sent to the chief justice two separate petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman seeking stay of the proceedings against them in Zia Orphanage Trust embezzlement case.

With both teams having lost their first matches against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India will look to register their first win when they meet for the first time in the Idea Cup at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.

Editorial

THE main opposition seems not to have buried the hatchet, but is raising demand after demand as a precondition for joining the parliamentary sessions. Interestingly, in their latest disclosure on the demands, they made no mention of rearrangement and increasing the number of front row seats for which they started their continuous boycott of Jatiya Sangsad (JS) from its second session in June last year in the first place.

THE Moulvibazar district administration has decided to go beyond just appealing to people to refrain from poaching migratory birds. They have announced that anyone catching a bird poacher will be monetarily rewarded for the service rendered to the guests flying all the way from sub-arctic zones to our water bodies and marshlands. The district administration aims to protect the birds in Hakaluki haor, where they are found aplenty during the winter.

IT is only natural that a government's one year in office will come under scrutiny, perhaps more vigorously than before because of the two year interregnum that almost put democracy on a permanent hold. And that interregnum was necessitated by the way things developed in the political arena before October 2006.

VISION for 2021, the water challenges and regional cooperation Bangladesh Vision for 2021 aims at self-sufficiency in food production by 2012, increase of electricity supply to 7,000 MW in 2013, 8,000 MW by 2015 and 20,000 MW by 2021, annual economic growth of 8% by 2013 and 10% by 2017, and reduction of poverty level from 45% to 15% by 2021.

Sports

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan's first wish will be to hope for the rub of the green when it comes to tossing the coin with India skipper MS Dhoni for today's third one-day match in the Idea Cup tri-nation tournament at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Fazly Rabbi of Manikganj Government Boys' High school hit a double century in the Standard Chartered Young Tigers Under-16 National School Cricket tournament at the local Shahid Miraj-Tapan Stadium yesterday.

Sri Lanka have called up Mahela Jayawardene to boost their injury-hit squad midway through the tri-series in Bangladesh. The team has lost the services of three men on this tour: Tillakaratne Dilshan picked up a groin injury during the first game against Bangladesh, Chamara Silva fractured his thumb during training, and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara injured his shoulder in the game against India. In addition to Jayawardene, Sri Lanka have called up the 20-year old uncapped wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal and the opener Mahela Udawatte, 23, who has played nine ODIs.

Australia completed a nerve-shredding 36-run victory over an exasperating Pakistani side to become just the sixth team in Test history to triumph after trailing by 200-plus on the first innings. An obstinate 123-run ninth-wicket partnership between Michael Hussey and Peter Siddle drew Australia back into a contest they appeared to have conceded after a calamitous opening day, and a penetrative final-day bowling display completed one of the great comebacks witnessed on these shores.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has shouldered the blame for Pakistan's shock 36-run defeat against Australia in Sydney, and has said his dismissal was the turning point of Pakistan's chase on the fourth afternoon.

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook survived some hostile bowling from South Africa's new ball bowlers on the fourth day of the third Test at Newlands on Wednesday as England set out on the long quest to preserve their lead in the series.

All the Australian team talk was right and the doubters were wrong. In the most unbelievable turnaround Ricky Ponting's men up-ended Pakistan on a swinging day to wrap up the series at the SCG and earn smug smiles and wild celebrations.

Television entered a new dimension on Tuesday as US sports giant ESPN said it will broadcast some World Cup soccer matches live from South Africa in 3-D and Sony teamed up with Discovery and IMAX to launch a 3-D TV network in the United States.

Former German international and World Cup-winning skipper Lothar Matthaus has split from fourth wife Liliana and is set to enter divorce proceedings after just a year of marriage, Bunte tabloid reported Tuesday.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday started its automation drive in the capital by launching computerised data entry for Dhaka Tax Zone-8 as part of a move to automate the entire board activities by June.

The Bank of England is expected to hold its key interest rate at a record-low 0.50 percent at a meeting on Thursday, analysts said, amid hopes that Britain will soon exit a deep and long-lasting recession.

North Korea has ordered the closure of a major wholesale market in the latest of a series of measures to reassert government control over the faltering economy, a Seoul-based welfare group said Wednesday.

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad yesterday called on the leaders and activists of his party to strengthen the party's organisational capacity with a view to contesting the next parliamentary elections alone.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has asked a joint secretary general of the party to prepare a list of the leaders who were active during the emergency period of the immediate past caretaker government regime, but were not considered for the newly formed central executive committee.

Dhaka University (DU) Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique yesterday hoped that the government would ensure rule of law and strengthen democracy through its work in next four years and implement its adopted plans in next four years involving people.

Chehlum of Akhter Ahmed Khan, minister (Press) at Bangladesh embassy in Washington and former secretary general of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), will be held at Bar Library Bhaban near of Dhaka District Judge's court in the city after Juma prayers tomorrow, says a press release.

Agitating students of Dhaka Nursing College on the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) compound yesterday confined their 20 teachers, including the principal, to the latter's room to press home their four-point demand.

Army helicopters will be used to carry vaccine doses and health workers to 11 inaccessible areas of Bandarban hill district to ensure administering polio vaccines to the indigenous children in the remote inaccessible areas.

Indigenous people belonging to United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) kept the Panchhari upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) confined to his office for about an hour following a heated exchange between the UNO and the upazila chairman yesterday.

Passengers of BRTC bus service operating in a number of districts are facing difficulties as private transport workers and motor owners associations are allegedly putting obstacles on different routes.

Kalmakanda upazila BNP office was ransacked allegedly by BCL activists yesterday. Local BNP claimed that over 100 BCL activists of Kalmakanda upazila, equipped with lethal weapons, brought out a procession at the upazila headquarters at noon. The BCL men then attacked the BNP office and damaged its furniture, they added. Contacted, officer-in-charge of Kalmakanda Police Station confirmed the attack.

Law enforcers seized 20,000 notebooks and guidebooks from three bookshops in the town on Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, Rab and police launched a joint drive at around 5:00pm and seized the banned books from Kohinoor Library, Book Centre and Pustak Ghar. No one was arrested.

Police recovered a decomposed body from a Chandai village in Atghoria upazila of the district yesterday morning. The deceased was identified as Antar Ali, 30, son of Ansar Ali of the village. Police quoted family sources as saying that Antar went out of his house on December 19 to buy a power tiller and remained missing since then. Fishermen found the decomposed body in Chandai water body early yesterday and informed the police who recovered the body in the morning and sent it to Pabna General Hospital for autopsy.

Police arrested SM Abdur Rob, president of Krishak Dal district unit, at his house at Itbarai village under Sadar upazila on Monday. Police said Abdur Rob, also a former chairman of Itbaria Union Parishad, was wanted in a number of criminal cases. Police on Tuesday produced Rob in a court that sent him to jail.

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion arrested one person with 300 sacks of fake fertiliser from chalk Baddinath area in Natore town on Monday night. The arrestee is Jahurul Islam, 30, son of Nurul Islam of Chalk baddinath. A team of Rab-5 with the help of Natore police raided a godown in Chalk Baddinath area at around 9:00pm and arrested Jahurul Islam with 300 sacks of fake MOP fertiliser.

Robbers looted valuables worth several lakhs of taka from passengers on the road at Bhairabtali Shahji Bazaar in Srimongal upazila of Moulvibazar district early yesterday. Police quoting witnesses said 20 to 25 robbers intercepted vehicles by placing electric poles of Palli Bidyut Samity on the road and looted cash and valuables from the passengers at gunpoint at around 2:00am The gang also damaged windowpanes of a number of vehicles as the drivers refused to open the doors. On information, police rushed to the spot and rescued a car driver who was tied up by the robbers.

A daylong awareness programme for the investors about capital market will be held here on January 9. Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will arrange the programme for the first time at Barisal Club auditorium. ICB Securities Trading Company Limited (ISTCL), a subsidiary of Investment Corporation of Bangladesh as member of DSE, is locally organising the programme with the assistance from other private brokerage in the city.

The United States has sought from the Pakistani government an early arrest and extradition of Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the pro-Kashmir Jihadi group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), in connection with the assassination of seven CIA agents in Afghanistan's Khost province.

Karachi Police Chief Wasim Ahmed has claimed that the culprits responsible for the Asura blast, which killed 42 people in Karachi on December 28, have been identified and will be brought before the public within a week.

With a book written by one of Osama bin Laden's sons, and with news of a daughter sheltering in the Saudi Embassy in Iran, some of the blanks are being filled in on the life of the 9/11 mastermind's large family, including lurid details of his parenting style.

The Obama administration's decision to carry out extra security checks, including full-body pat downs, on people flying into the United States from 14 mostly Muslim countries has provoked criticism from foreign officials.

Sir William Patey, Britain's Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2006, has said that there was a "disconnect" between then Prime Minister Tony Blair's demands and the situation faced by their forces fighting in Basra and the south of the country.

Arts & Entertainment

Murtaja Baseer is one of the distinguished painters of our country, who has made a great contribution to Bangladeshi art. From his childhood, he has had a great passion for art. Baseer recently reminisced on his association with his teacher Zainul Abedin, a pioneering figure of the modern art movement, who founded Dhaka Art College in 1948 with some of his comrades.

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is dreamy and draws listeners into themselves. "Sonata", by Mahesh Elkunchwar is all about people drawn into themselves: people with dramatic exteriors but a pain of inner loneliness not far below that gets achingly more intense with every lie they tell the world and also to themselves.

Bangladesh born Indian classical singer Tushar Dutta recently visited Dhaka. Dutta came to Bangladesh upon an invitation from Chhayanaut, to perform at the recent classical music festival (from December 24-26, 2009) organised by the institution.

OP-ED

ECONOMIC diplomacy through dialogue with neighbouring countries, and multi-polar coalitions that may come up in the near future, seem to be the need of the time for our survival and growth. Gone are the days of traditional diplomatic exchange of pleasantries, complimenting the host countries and assuring them of best cooperation, which means nothing and leads nowhere. With the development of digital technology, particularly the Internet, this time-consuming process has become redundant.

WITH keen interest I went through the two pieces on the usefulness (or otherwise) of cadet colleges in the point-counterpoint page of The Daily Star of December 15 and 24, 2009 respectively. Being a product of a cadet college, I have often done some soul searching on two things. First, what exactly was the intent of having such a totally different and apparently costly system of secondary education for a chosen few; and then, whether we have done our part in paying back the nation for the resources it had invested in us. I was never really sure about the answers.

ROAMING the city's streets in the back seat of one's own chauffeured automobile has been a passion of Dhaka's moneyed classes from the colonial days. Historians argue whether the first motor vehicle in the city was owned by the Nawab family or the British sahibs. But owning a car has been a substantial status symbol in our society for a century now, with memories of dust storms on the city's dirt roads created by those early vehicles passed down through generations.

Star Chittagong

Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has taken several projects worth over Tk 739 crore to rid the city of gridlocks and develop road network in the port city in the wake of increasing number of vehicles as well as population.

CU teachers urged to remove session jamChittagong University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Abu Yusuf urged the teachers to perform their duties with utmost sincerity and integrity to remove the session jam at the university by this year.